


maggot skin

by relationshipcrimes



Series: entomology [4]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game)
Genre: Bug Capitalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 13:29:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17623268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/relationshipcrimes/pseuds/relationshipcrimes
Summary: The False Knight faces off against a very inexperienced Knight.





	maggot skin

When the False Knight raises his mace to finish them off, the Tiny Knight, caught unawares and defenseless, freezes.

The False Knight thinks of two things.

 

*

 

The first:

His friends, denied name and citizenship under the regime of the Pale King, cowering under the might of even the lowest-class working bugs. The lowest of the low of Hallownest's caste, the nearly-brainless bugs that carried shell-carts and stones for better-off, better-paid managers, sneering at the maggots, telling them to get out of their way. The sound of mockery: _Come home for dinner_ , with a leery smile. The sound of indifference: _I'll give your job to another maggot if you don't like it_. Small, fleshy hands of his friends, beginning to rip and bleed under the weight of stones. _Maggots aren't even good for menial labor. Too soft. Too weak_.

Those same bugs turn around, bow and scrape to their overseers; their overseers bow and scrape to their managers; the managers bow and scrape to their bosses; who bow to their benefactors; who bow to their nobility; who bow to the king. Worker bugs promoted to overseers, and then all their friends bow and scrape to them, too.

The rules of the universe are brightest and clearest to those being crushed by them, and the rules of the universe were power. You couldn't do anything without it, not in some shape or form--size, or money, or persuasive words, or rank, or beauty, or loyalty. If you wanted to do terrible things: you needed power. If you wanted to do good things: you needed power.

If you wanted to save the ones you love: you needed power.

 

*

 

The second:

The Tiny Knight's face is wide and open. Something about them seems inexperienced. They are smaller than the False Knight, and smaller than the False Knight's maggot friends, too. Their nail hangs at their side in surprise; the False Knight's caught them completely unawares, and they've dropped their guard altogether. Soft, small, their mask the pale white of a maggot's skin. Tiny creature without strength yet. Defenseless. 

Weak.

 

*

 

The mace falls.

A crunch. Blackish blood leaks.

The feeling of satisfaction.


End file.
